Choppers
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India, China pilots may train at Ukraine base
In a strange twist of fate, a former province of the then USSR Ukraine is emerging as the likely meeting point for naval aviators from India and China as the two countries try to rapidly acquire the capabilities to build and operate aircraft carriers of the future. A small aircraft carrier training base on the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine is the most sought after training facility for both countries that are planning to induct modern aircraft carriers in the next five years.
While India, which has been operating aircraft carriers for the past 50 years, wants to use the Nitka Research Test and Flying Centre to train its pilots during 2012-1013 in the run-up to the Gorshkov aircraft carrier induction, Beijing is already making overtures to Ukraine for using the facility to train its aviators for carrier-borne operations.
Chinas first aircraft carrier, according to US estimates, is set to roll out and get into service by 2015. India, on the other hand, expects to get its indigenous aircraft carrier by 2014-15, in addition to the Gorshkov in 2013.
With carrier flying being an extremely specialised skill, the only testing and training range available in the world is the Ukraine-based Nitka centre. Over the past few years, several high-level Chinese delegations have been to the country to gain expertise, and experts say that an exchange programme is on the cards soon to train Chinese pilots on the principles of arrested landing when the fighter lands on a carrier as well as a ski jump, the elevated platform from where a fighter takes off at sea.
India has now said that it is also keen to send its pilots for training at the Nitka centre a few months before the Gorshkov is delivered. The only place in the world where the facilities exist for training is Ukraine. Four or five months before the commissioning, we expect ten pilots to be trained by the Russians in Ukraine, says Captain Surendra Ahuja, Commanding Officer of the Hansa Naval air station here.
At the same time, India is building its own Shore Based Testing and Training Facility (SBTF) at the Hansa airbase in Goa. Work has already started on the project, which the Navy says will be the only the second such facility after Ukraine, and is likely to finish by 2012. China is also planning a similar facility to train its pilots near the Dailan naval base.
Given that US will never step in to help, Beijing has also zeroed in to the Nitka facility in Ukraine to train its pilots. Reports from Ukraine suggest that a plan for training Chinese pilots there is in the final rounds of negotiations while high-level meetings have already started.
And, with 2015 being the likely date for induction of a Chinese aircraft carrier, chances are that Chinese pilots could be training besides their Indian counterparts. In 2008, China started training its first batch of fighter pilots who will operate from the countrys future fleet of aircraft carriers.
In its typical low-key fashion, a small article in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Daily announced that the first batch of 50 pilots cadets had been inducted at the Dalian Naval Academy and would receive training on ship borne aircraft flight. China remains the only major military power that does not possess an aircraft carrier but the country is fast moving towards acquiring a fleet of indigenous carriers and the training programme for pilots was a rare official acknowledgement of the project.
The US believes that China will have its first operational aircraft carrier by 2015.
:: Bharat-Rakshak.com - Indian Military News Headlines ::
